Private Counsel
by El Chacal
Summary: Post Mad Grey Dawn and during PINEWOOD. Bruce Wayne speaks privately with ADA Harvey Dent and Captain Nathaniel Barnes on separate occasions.
1. Chapter 1

Private Counsel

A/n: I thought that there ought to be some sort of inclusion of what Harvey Dent was going through as well as having Bruce meet ADA Dent. Since no one else had written anything like this and I was suddenly struck with the inspiration to do it, I wrote it and here it is. So far, this story is a one shot with the possibility for a two chapter story and that might be pushing it. Perhaps I'll be inspired again to write one with Bruce talking directly with Captain Nathaniel Barnes. Time will tell.

Disclaimer: I don't own the show, the characters or anything in the DC universe. No infringements or profits are being made. Do not sue. Thank you.

* * *

Though he hid it under his charm and charisma, everything was set in duality to Dent.

Innocent and Guilty. Good and Bad. Day and Night. Lawman and Criminal. Friend and Foe.

Even with such a perspective as this, Harvey Dent was torn when it came to indicting James Gordon in a court of law.

He did not want to go out and face the press so soon after James Gordon was taken away by the GCPD Strike Force in handcuffs. They would only grill him about what it meant to indict and convict such a prolific and decorated police officer.

Spinning his two-faced coin on his desk in a feeble and vain attempt to distract himself, Harvey Dent wished he could have flipped the coin and the script to give Gordon a pass or, at the very least, a reduced sentence.

On the other hand, if he did, it would only bring about a terrible precedent where other crooked cops, shady politicians and downright criminals could use to escape justice.

Again, there was duality staring Dent right in the face.

Deliver justice and uphold the law or save a colleague and fight to find evidence to gain exoneration.

A knock on the door of his office caught his attention. "I'm not talking with the press. So either find a way to get me out of here without them knowing or inform me when they have left."

"It's not the press, Mr. Dent. There is someone here to see you."

"Who is it?"

"He claims to be Bruce Wayne."

Harvey shot up from his desk and checked himself in the mirror to see that he was presentable before walking out to his paralegal who was joined by two youthful teenagers.

The girl was dressed in black leathers and jeans with a hoodie barely concealing her thick, wavy blonde hair.

The boy was dressed in casual clothes and yet one look at him was all Harvey Dent needed to know it was not some prank being pulled to lure him out by the press.

"Bruce Wayne, I'm ADA Harvey Dent. To what do I owe a visit from the boy prince of Gotham?" Harvey had to really dig deep into his well of charisma to hide his stress from his voice.

Bruce accepted his hand in a handshake. "I wish to speak with you privately if I could, Mr. Dent."

"Of course." Harvey said before looking at the girl. If there was any recognition, he did not show it but from association and the report given by James Gordon, he figured out that the young girl next to Bruce was the mysterious Selina Kyle who helped Gordon and Mr. Pennyworth save Bruce Wayne's life.

"Feel free to stay here if you like but do not go out through the front doors. The press might be camped out there for all I know."

Selina plopped down in a sofa across from the desks of the paralegals. "I can get bored easily. Don't take too long in there."

Harvey allowed Bruce to walk in before entering and closing the door behind him.

"I don't imagine I have to guess what you want to talk with me about?"

"Detective Gordon does not deserve to go to jail. He did not break the law." Bruce argued.

"I am not any happier about seeing him indicted as you are."

"But you are not going to get him out?" Bruce asked.

Harvey sighed. "Bruce...Can I call you Bruce?"

Bruce nodded. "During a hearing where he gave a detailed report on the events that took place at Galavan's penthouse loft, Gordon said he saved your life along with your legal guardian, Mr. Alfred Pennyworth and, if I'm right about this, the young girl who helped sneak you in here. Selina Kyle, am I right?"

Seeing the look on Bruce's face, Harvey was quick to reassure him. "Whatever you say now or indicate to me is off the record and will never go further than you and me."

Bruce nodded.

"I had no cause to doubt him. I still do not. The problem is that the evidence is indisputable. As much as it sticks in my mouth like bile, I have to prosecute cases with the primary objective being that justice is served."

"Was it served, Mr. Dent? I know Detective Gordon. He would never kill a fellow police officer."

"I want to believe that too, Bruce. However, what I may feel about Gordon being in Blackgate does not change the fact that personal or popular beliefs do not trump the evidence that proves the contrary."

"So you are going to leave Detective Gordon in Blackgate?" Bruce asked.

"There is a chance that, with the right legal counsel, he could file a motion for an appeal. Perhaps even try for parole eligibility but even that is a long shot. If he does get out, the chances of him wearing the badge again are very slim to none."

Bruce looked at Harvey and asked, "Are you telling me what I want to hear or what I need to hear?"

Harvey snorted in amusement. "I half expected you to storm out of my office. I don't want to talk to you like you're a little kid. I don't want to kill your hope that Gordon might be innocent."

"You think he's innocent?"

"I think he's not innocent but I do not think he is guilty for what he was charged on."

"That's very contradictory, isn't it?" Bruce asked as Harvey walked over to a table, poured two cups of water and handed one to him.

"Yes. It is a contradictory answer. As strange as it may seem, I think it's true and I can't use that to spring him out of prison."

Bruce drank his water and set the cup upon the desk. 'Thank you for speaking with me, Mr. Dent."

"Call me Harvey. Even if this is not the best of circumstances, I hope this is the start of a friendship between us." Harvey said as he offered his hand to Bruce.

With a final handshake, Bruce walked outside and departed the courthouse with Selina.

* * *

A/n: There it is. My first GOTHAM fan fic.


	2. Chapter 2

Private Counsel Gotham fanfiction chapter 2

A/n: I had no idea Bruce would end up having a conversation with Capt. Nathaniel Barnes before the episode INTO THE WOODS aired. I was surprised to say the least. Either it was pure happenstance or the writers of the show are reading fanfiction.

* * *

Bruce never thought that he would be walking into a police station alongside Alfred, who was clearly arrested more than once by the GCPD. Having been close enough to hear Alfred's murmurings, he heard something along the lines of 'At least I didn't get tasered this time.', which almost made him laugh until he was led into the office of Captain Nathaniel Barnes.

"Bruce Wayne, I'm Captain Nathaniel Barnes. I wish we could have met under better circumstances. Have a seat."

With everything that happened in the hospital with the gunman being slain rather violently by Karen, Bruce felt very restless. "I think I'll stand for now, Captain Barnes. Where is Karen Jennings?"

"Right now, she is being detained in a separate cell due to her rather unusual condition and because she cut a man's throat to the point of near decapitation. I'm not about to put her in a cell with other people who could very well become another notch on her belt. Apart from that, I want to know is why you, Mr. Pennyworth and Ms. Jennings were trespassing on private property and your relation to Ms. Jennings."

Bruce huffed out a frustrated sigh while gathering his thoughts together. The more he thought of it, the more he saw that there was nothing in what he was doing to incriminate him or Alfred.

At least what he was planning to tell Captain Barnes.

"I was trying to learn more about my parents; who they were, what they were doing and what led to their murder. I looked into some of my father's activities and it led me to finding Karen. My father, he was a caretaker of sorts for her. She mentioned a hospital that she was kept at and we went there, hoping to find answers. Instead, we wound up here."

Captain Barnes looked him over with a look of sympathy that did not last long. "The case of your parents' murder is closed. Even if it was still open, would finding anything bring your mother and father back to you?"

"No. It would not." Bruce admitted out loud. "It would have helped me find out who ordered the death of my parents and why."

"It's a tragedy that your parents are gone but you are still alive and there are still people here, even in this city, who care about you."

"Are you going to charge me with trespassing or Alfred with possession of a licensed firearm?" Bruce asked evasively.

A knock on the door caught their attention. "Enter." Barnes ordered before one of the GCPD Strike Force officers entered with a file in hand. "The file on Karen Jennings."

"Thank you, officer Reyes. Dismissed." Barnes replied. before looking over the file of Karen Jennings for a moment.

"There's nothing to charge you with since you did nothing to warrant any arrest other than wandering around someplace you should not be wandering around. As for Mr. Pennyworth, he ought to be glad he did not shoot any of the police officers who arrived at the hospital." Barnes answered before a question immediately rose in his mind. "What are you really looking for, Bruce?"

"The truth about what happened to my parents and what they were hiding from me."

In his time as a Marine and as a cop, Captain Barnes had seen the look in a man's eye when he's been in the thick of it for too long and the look of someone who was broken from traumatic events.

What he saw in Bruce's eyes was beyond anything he had ever seen.

"You still have a life of your own. Do not squander it." Barnes spoke.

"I don't plan to, Captain." Bruce answered.

* * *

A/n: OK. This is what I could come up with in regards to Captain Barnes & Bruce Wayne. How did it come out? I hope they did not come off as OOC (out of character).


End file.
